Town of Lewiston plans for 2013

by jmaloni

Fri, Jan 4th 2013 09:30 pm

by
Terry Duffy

The Town
of Lewiston Town Board saw a relatively quiet December, with a work
session and final audit being the meetings of note for the month.

Major news
saw movement on a new recreational/senior center being eyed for the
Lewiston-Porter School District campus on Creek Road. The
Lewiston-Porter Board of Education approved a letter of intent at its
December meeting to enable expected sale of the property. It set a
land purchase price of $5,000 per acre for the land that fronts
Lewiston-Porter High School on Creek Road. The town will likely be
visiting this matter at its January regular session, set for Monday,
Jan. 28. (Find details of the proposed center online at www.wnypapers.com).

As the
Town Board moves into January, on the schedule is a reorganization
meeting Monday, which will see a number of procedural items put in
place as Lewiston prepares to do business in 2013, and a work
session.

As noted,
the board will also meet on Monday, Jan. 28, for its regular monthly
session. That night, further action is expected on the recreation
center complex, and also on a lingering issue that became a
discussion item at the board's Dec. 10 work session, that of
finalizing the town's zoning law. Last month, attendees voiced
concerns to the board that the zoning law updates, a months-long
project undertaken by Wendel Duchscherer Architects and Engineers PC,
was still not on the Town of Lewiston website. Residents Paulette
Glasgow, Amy Witryol and others urged the Town Board to postpone any
action on the matter until residents could examine the law. The two
also requested the board examine further any zoning changes covering
regulatory issues at the Lake Ontario Ordinance Works site where they
felt town zoning changes could impact future activities at LOOW,
including CWM operations.

On their
concerns, council members Al Bax and Ernie Palmer both said the
zoning updates had been covered at length by Wendel representatives
throughout the year. Palmer said at some point that zoning "needs
to be wrapped up," while Bax said the town came "up with a good
plan" on the zoning update. Town Attorney Mike Dowd said the zoning
law updates, procedures of which were approved by the town last
April, had been available in map form "for many months" at Town
Hall.

Any LOOW
site concerns, Supervisor Steve Reiter dismissed, saying that CWM's
property was not within the Town of Lewiston proper to begin with and
that the zoning amendments would have no impact

It was not
revealed however where the map updates could be found online. The
town's website, which is months along in the process of a complete
revamping, is very far from complete and contains no links to any
maps. And searches of Lewiston's October 2012 updated zoning maps
via the Wendel Duchscherer website also proved fruitless.

The board
will be accepting comments on the rezoning until Jan. 7, the night of
its reorganization meeting.